India witnessed one of the largest mobilisations of its industrial and service sector workers in recent times when millions went on a two-day strike on 20 and 21 February to oppose the government’s economic policies and demand better working conditions. From reports in the mainstream press and from the trade unions and striking workers, it does appear that the strike saw a greater reach than before and made enough of an impact to make “the deaf hear”. This is amply evident in the manner in which striking workers were attacked in different parts of the country. It is also evident in the shrillness with which the mainstream press attacked the strike and high­lighted a few sporadic instances of violence by workers. There has been less discussion about the demands of the workers and more about the loss to the “country”. The business press, in a touching expression of concern, editorialised on the ­welfare of workers and advised them on how to better-meet their interests.

The demands of the strike include a minimum wage of Rs 10,000 a month, pension and social security for workers irrespective of whether they are in the organised or unorganised sector, the universalisation of the public distribution system to cushion against rampaging food inflation, equal wages and rights for contract and regular workers, the abolition of contract labour, the right to form unions and collective bargaining, an end to inflation, and enforcement of labour laws. It will be evident that each of these demands is a matter of life and death for workers today. This journal itself has carried, with tragic monotony, detailed reports and research on how working and living conditions have, at best, stagnated and, in most cases, declined, while the country’s gross domestic product has multiplied many times over and the living conditions of those at the top of the pyramid have improved visibly. Working hours have been steadily increased without any improvement in working conditions or wages. In their race to invite private capital, governments are doing their very best to keep labour costs depressed and labour relations “peaceful”. In reality, this only means that workers are being exploited more and have fewer platforms for redress.

This is not merely an unsustainable trajectory it also goes against the very fundamental rights of citizenship which are granted by our Constitution. It is therefore only right that workers are standing up to demand what is theirs and which has been denied to them repeatedly. A dispassionate appraisal of the workers’ demands indicates that, if granted, they would just about suffice for basic survival in present conditions. These cannot be begrudged by silly talk of “loss”; from precisely those very sections that are the most pampered with exemptions, subsidies and bailouts.

It is telling that the government has largely ignored this strike. It is a reminder of our political context that a few thousand people gathered to demand a Jan Lokpal Bill or gender justice can move the government and the mainstream media to hyperactivity, but many millions of workers demanding basic living conditions are ignored thus! This is not to deny the importance of the fight against corruption or for gender justice, but an acknowledgement of the fact that our freedoms and our politics are still very much defined by class relations. It was the repeated refusal of the government to accede to the demands of the workers that forced them to exercise their right to strike.

While the fundamental right to strike is necessary in such conditions, the larger failure of the strike despite its very success brings us to question the strategy of the trade unions and ask whether it was right to call for strike. It is increasingly evident that strike as a weapon in one factory, one sector or even one industrial cluster is often successful in providing workers ­immediate relief. However, this weapon seems to be losing its effect when deployed not in a targeted manner but over a ­larger geography of the country or state. Is it wise to expose the ultimate weapon of the working class to such corrosive contexts? Further, an overwhelming majority of India’s working people are either informal labour or self-employed, often both. Many of them work in conditions that render them substantively unfree as they remain indebted to their credit supplier. Does the strike call of the organised sector workers in such conditions help unite the working class or does it ­provide its enemies with a ready-made divisive tool? This is not an argument against the right to strike, rather a plea to think of new and innovative methods of class action by working people.

There has been a clear rightward shift in the mainstream political arena with the ruling Congress trying hard to ­appropriate many aspects of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s agenda. In such conditions, growing working class activism is not ­only welcome but crucial to the survival of a democratic republic. The demands of the industrial strike of 20 and 21 February 2013 are just and should have been met without workers having to go on strike. However, this government, hitched as it is to the sentiments of private capital, is highly unlikely to accede to these demands. It is necessary therefore for industrial workers to build alliances with the struggles for livelihoods in all parts of the country.

Rosy Sequeira TNN

The state government on Thursday told the Bombay HighCourtthatitis exploring the possibility of applying the Maharashtra Essential Services Maintenance Act against chemists who are on strike. However, chemists claimed they were merely closing their shops early and were not on strike.
A division bench of Chief JusticeMohit Shah andJustice Anoop Mohta was hearing an application by advocate Datta Mane to revive his earlier PIL seeking prosecution of members of the Maharashtra State Chemists & Druggists Association, to restrain them from going on strike and find a permanent solution to the issue. Advocate SnehalRatnakar submitted on Mane’s behalf that greathardship willbecausedto peopleduetothestrike.
However, the association’s advocate told the bench it was not a strike but an individual decision taken by some chemists to keep their shops open from 10am to 6pm. He said it was prompted by visits at odd hours, like 3am, by Food and Drugs Administration officials asking about the presence of pharmacists. “If a pharmacist is not presentor hassteppedout
to answer nature’s call, they serve a stop-sell notice,’’ hesaid, adding there was a shortage of pharmacists in the state. He said there were about 70,000 chemist shops in the state but only 55,000 pharmacists, adding many pharmacists take up other jobs. He said while chemists are ready to keep their shops open beyond 6pm, the government must not insist on the presenceof pharmacists.
However, government pleader S S Shinde said the action being taken was statutory and chemists were acting contrary to the undertaking given when applying for licences, which stated they will keep their shops open for at least 12 hours. “It is not a flimsy
ground, we have consistently found that qualified pharmacists are not available,’’ he added. The association’s advocate saidsincetheHC’sOctober 2012 order,the governmentdid nothing and not a single meeting washeldon theissue.
Shinde argued chemists have gone on strike in retaliation againstthe action initiated by the FDA. “We are exploring the possibility of taking action under the Essential Services Act. The commissioner has power to prohibit a strike,’’ said Shinde.
The judges asked the government to show the provision in lawunder which it can insist chemists keep their shops open. The judges also observed that the government must understand the difficultiesof chemists. “Try to understand their difficulty also. Have at least one meeting with them,” said Justice Shah.Thejudgesdirected the government to file a reply and produce a copy of the chemists’ undertaking atthehearing on March 8.What is MesmaThe Maharashtra Essential Services Maintenance Act came into effect in Maharashtra in July 2012. It is applicable to providers of essential services to the public at large. An offence under the Act is cognisable and punishable with imprisonment up to 1 year. The Act empowers police to arrest offenders without a warrant

Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving regarded as one of the biggest shopping days of the year, may be dramatically different this year.

Organizers are planning a nationwide strike against Walmart, the largest retailer in the world, and are banking on a new strategy: online organizing.

Labor organizers are working with social action nonprofit Engage Network as well as corporate watchdog nonprofit Corporate Action Network to pull off what they are calling a “viral” — meaning national and spreading online — strike.

Walmart workers interested in joining the day of action are directed to this website, either to find a store near them with an organized strike or to “adopt an event” at a store near them.

Brian Young, cofounder of the Corporate Action Network, said on a conference call coordinated by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union Thursday, that organizers cannot cover the roughly 4,000 Walmarts across the country, but enabling self-appointed leaders online has widened and decentralized the campaign.

Supporters can also sponsor a striking worker, who may be losing wages in order to strike, by donating grocery gift cards. The campaign has raised more than $13,500 worth of donations toward grocery gift cards since Oct. 15 — a figure that doesn’t include significant funds raised through mailed-in checks, Jamie Way, of the UFCW, told HuffPost.

“This online mobilization, in addition to traditional on-the-ground organizing, has allowed the campaign to reach into the rural corners of the country that might have otherwise been overlooked,” Marianne Manilov, cofounder of the Engage Network, said on the conference call.

She pointed to a group of renegade workers in Oklahoma who mobilized in October. “A completely unorganized set of workers in Oklahoma spontaneously went out on strike and held their own type of action without any organizer or … connection with the broader organization,” she said. “This is what organizing looks like in the age of Occupy.”

The outreach leading up to Black Friday follows a series of unprecedented actions taken by Walmart workers against their employer and working conditions. In October, for the first time in the company’s 50-year history, more than 70 workers at multiple Los Angeles-area Walmart stores walked off the job, even though their jobs are not protected by an official union. The strike had a ripple effect, causing strikes in 12 other cities, in large part through online organizing.

The success of these strikes, as well as one over the summer touted as the largest ever protest against the company, and a six-day pilgrimmage of warehouse workers in September, would not have been possible without Facebook, Twitter and other web sites, Young said.

“Making Change at Walmart,” which organized the demonstrations and is a campaign affiliated with the UFCW union, has over 25,000 supporters on Facebook.

Although it does not officially represent Walmart workers, OUR Walmart, organized by the Making Change campaign, acts like a union to fight for the rights of Walmart workers. OUR Walmart, which was founded last year with 100 members, now has over 14,000 supporters on Facebook.

Corey Parker, a Walmart worker from Mississippi, said on the conference call that he became active with OUR Walmart after finding out about it through a HuffPost article on Facebook. Now, he has mobilized workers at his store to strike on Black Friday because, he said, he realized that “not being able to make a living was not just an issue at my store.”

Adding fuel to movement, Walmart announced Thursday that it will kick off its Black Friday sale at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving, its earliest start ever.

“Lots and lots of Walmart workers are going to be forced to not have Thanksgiving because they’re going to be preparing all day for the busiest shopping day of the year,” Dan Schlademan, director of Making Change at Walmart, said on the conference call. “This essentially cancels Thanksgiving for hundreds of thousands of workers.”

“It’s not like Walmart is financially hurting. It’s not like they’re not making unbelievable sums of money. The price of this is really decimating an important family day in our country.”

But Walmart spokesman Steven Restivo said of the sale, “Last year, our highest customer traffic was during the 10 p.m. hour and, according to the National Retail Federation, Thanksgiving night shopping has surged over the past three years.”

“Most of our stores are open 24 hours and, historically, much of our Black Friday preparations have been done on Thanksgiving, which is not unusual in the retail industry,” he said, adding that the strikes planned for Black Friday, will not “have any impact on our business.”

Regarding the action over the last few months, Restivo said, “While the opinions expressed by this group don’t represent the views of the vast majority of more than 1.3 million Walmart associates in the U.S., when our associates bring forward concerns, we listen.”

In September, dozens of Walmart-contracted warehouse workers in Southern California’s Inland Empire walked off the job and went on a six-day, 50-mile pilgrimage to protest working conditions and retaliation for speaking up.

More than a month later, the warehouse company NFI responded to some of the strikers’ working condition requests. “Just in the last week, we’ve seen the warehouse operators scrambling to replace broken and unsafe equipment, they’ve rented fans to increase ventilation, and they’ve added more water coolers,” Elizabeth Brennan, communications director for Warehouse Workers United, said on the conference call.

However, the strikers who returned to work have continued to face retaliation, many times getting their hours cut from 35 down to eight, she said. Some of these warehouse workers will join striking Walmart workers on Black Friday, Brennan said.

Excluding the retaliation, organizers hope to see that type of positive response after Black Friday. And with an online system open to anyone who wants to start a strike in his or her local Walmart, Manilov hopes both the demonstration and response will be broad-reaching.

“This is one of the first labor campaigns to really fully embrace the potential of online-to-offline labor organizing,” she said. “As this captures fire, its potential is limitless.”

Instigating, financing or even participating in an illegal strike could land a person in jail in Maharashtra.

MUMBAI: Instigating, financing or even participating in an illegal strike could land a person in jail in Maharashtra. If convicted, any person engaged in an essential or public service who supports a strike will face a prison term of up to one year, or be slapped with a fine of up to Rs 2,000, or both. The police can arrest offenders without a warrant and the offence has been made non-bailable. In other words, those booked in an illegal strike case will have to move court to get bail.A notification to this effect came into force on Friday, following a presidential nod to amendments in the Maharashtra Essential Services Maintenance Act, 2011 ( MESMA). The state legislative assembly had sought approval for the amendments to the Act after they were cleared during the winter session in Nagpur last December.

“If striking employees in any sector (be it public, private or unorganized) are to adversely impact public life and the concerned establishment notifies the strike as illegal, then the employees refusing to work can be booked under the amended Essential Services Act,” said P S Meena, additional chief secretary, general administration department.

According to the amendments, an essential service includes public transport such as autorickshaws, taxis and school buses, or individuals employed in hospitals, government, semi-government establishments, high court employees, civic staff, teaching staff, or even those engaged in the supply of milk, water, gas and electricity.

The amendment has not gone down well with unions. A state gazetted office-bearer inMantralaya said that strikes are a way of protest. “We do not like to trouble citizens. But by banning strikes, sometimes the only resort to air grievances, the government has taken an anti-worker stand.”

Even BJP MLA Devendra Fadnavis, while participating in the legislative assembly debate in 2011, had raised queries over the blanket ban on strikes. He had raised concerns that the Act might be “misused” against those protesting in a rightful manner to meet their demands.

Refuting the allegations, a Mantralaya official said, “We are not against the rights of any person. The objective of introducing the amendment is to save citizens various hassles during strikes.”

The official added that the amendments made in Maharashtra to the Act are “less stringent” than the rules that exist in Tamil Nadu. According to the Tamil Nadu Essential Services Act, those indulging in an illegal strike invite conviction and punishment with imprisonment up to three years and/or a fine of up to Rs 5,000.

Unions on warpath, to protest strike ban

MUMBAI: While consumer activists welcomed the state government’s decision to put strikers behind bars, the huge workforce in civic, industrial, transport, health, education and other government sectors plans to put up a strong resistance to the ban on strikes.

About three months ago, Sharad Rao, who has control over the BMC, auto and other trade unions, had warned that workers would voluntarily bring “essential services in Mumbai to a grinding halt” if the new law were to be passed.

On Friday, Rao refused to divulge his strategy, but said that unions will “strongly react against the ban very soon”.

There were also indications from certain unions that they may move court and file a public interest litigation over the next few days to demand “justice for workers and protection of their freedom to raise their voice”.

Taxi union leader A L Quadros said, “We don’t care about imprisonment. If they want to curb our freedom of speech and expression, and put us behind bars, we are ready to face it.” He has been spearheading the cause of cabbies since 1962 and has been part of several strikes. He further said that till taxi drivers go on strike, government files don’t move an inch.

Bal Malkit Singh of All India Motor Transport Congress said, “We don’t love to protest or call for a ‘chakka jam’ (strike). In fact, transporters incur huge losses during strikes. It would have been much easier if the government heard our grievances at the earliest, but this never happens. Despite submitting several petitions, meeting everyone from officials to ministers (and also the CM) and taking out morchas, the government continues to turn a blind eye to our problems. We resort to strikes as a last-ditch attempt so that we can negotiate with the government on our demands. It is our fundamental right.”

Ganesh Batashetti, joint secretary, Maharashtra Government Employee Federation, agreed that in a democracy, everyone had the right to protest. He said, “Our problems are never resolved in roundtable meetings with the government and issues linger.”

“In a country where we gained independence by way of protesting and filling up prisons, there is little the government may achieve by trying to scare people against striking work,” said Dr Shiva Kumar, secretary, Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors.

Anil Garg, president, School Bus Owners’ Association (SBOA), said the country was moving towards dictatorship. “What’s the use of democracy if one cannot question the government?” he asked.

Madhu Paranjpe, secretary of the Bombay University and College Teachers’ Union (BUCTU), added, “Globalization is creating such conditions that it is becoming difficult for people to maintain their living standards. Inflation and the escalating price of education and other things are adding to it. The only thing left with people is the collective right to negotiate issues and the government is taking away that right too. Strike is not an easy action and unions consider it as the last option to get things done.”

Consumer rights activist Shirish Deshpande, though, sa-id he was glad the governm-ent took a call to include self-employed workers such as au-to and taxi drivers in the ru-les. “They cause tremendous in-co-nvenience to lakhs of comm-u-ters and this is unpardonable.”

We denounce the Maharashtra government which is pushing to promulgate draconian MESMA” , “We pledge to unitedly oppose MESMA and fight for it’s withdrawl”, so declared representatives of more than 18 organizations of working people in a meeting in Mumbai on 21stJuly. As was reported in MEL earlier, in the last week of April ’12 the Maharashtra Legislative Council passed the Maharashtra Essential Services Maintenance Act 2011 (MESMA) and sent it to Governor of Maharashtra for his signature.

Lok Raj Sangathan Maharashtra committee took initiative and formed an organizing committee which organized this meeting which was presided over by Lok Raj Sangathan Honorary President Justice Hosbet Suresh. Renowned Human Rights & Labour lawyer of Mumbai Advocate Mihir Desai highlighted main features of MESMA. He explained that under this draconian Act, any employees working in an enterprise which is declared by Government of Maharashtra as an ‘Essential Service’ can be punished if he/she participates in a strike action. Under this Act without any warrant police can arrest any such person and he/she can get punishment of 6 months imprisonment. He clarified that such a draconian provision of arrest is not there in Industrial Disputes act. He further explained that if employer feels that refusal to work on over time, work to rule etc. is affecting the productivity of the enterprise, then even such actions will be declared as strike and participants punished under this act! Just to make it appear that government is maintaining a balance between working people and employers, there is a provision to punish employers for a lockout. He clarified that though strike has been defined in such a way that any protest by employees can be termed as strike, definition of Lock out is kept completely vague thus ensuring that employers would never be punished. This real intention becomes clear from the fact so far not even one employer all over India in last more than 3 decades have been punished under such act, whereas a large number of employees struggles have been crushed using such acts. He clarified that working people should not look at courts for justice since they will never get justice from Indian courts, but instead working people have to unite and fight as they have done in the past and defeated such draconian acts. His presentation was received with applause.

Lok Raj Sangathan speaker explained as to how the struggles of teachers, doctors, municipal workers, Railway drivers, Air India pilots and other employees, bank and telecom workers etc. are very just struggles. He explained that all of them are fighting for improvement in their inhuman working conditions and a life of dignity. But the government is wanting to crush these struggles thus clearly indicating whom does this government represent in reality. He clarified that government is wanting to withdraw from the responsibility of providing services and instead wanting to hand them over to private capitalists. Lok Raj Sangathan has been opposing such privatization of p ublic assets right from the beginning with a principled stand that nobody has a right to sell of public property under any pretext. Employees in these sectors are also opposing privatization and that is another reason for bringing law like MESMA to crush this dissent. Who should have the right to make such laws in a genuine democracy he asked. In our country such laws are passed without seeking people’s opinion and not even their elected representatives opinion. Such laws are passed on the instructions of the rich of our country he clarified.

Speaker of Communist Ghadar Party of India congratulated various unions and organizations who have decided to unitedly oppose the draconian MESMA. Ruling classes and their political parties treat Fundamental rights as “rights which can be given or taken away under some pretext or other”. But all democratic people should refute this logic he said. Fundamental rights and Human rights belong to each human being by dint of their being Human . It is on the basis of this principle that all democratic minded people , whether they are communists or not , whether they belong to this party or that party , hence must denounce MESMA as an attack on Fundamental right to protest , the speaker declared. One of the spokesman of the ruling classes of India , PM , has made it clear what ruling classes want when he declared ” animal spirit ” must be revived in the Indian economy. What this means is that attacks on our livelihood are going to intensify. More public sector enterprises are going to be sold to private capitalists. Capitalists know that working people , be them white collared or blue collared , be them flying aircrafts / running trains / treating patiens / teaching students / operating banks / or doing hard manual labour as permanent or contract workers , will be opposing such attacks. They also know that working people in big enterprises have the maximum capability to resist these attacks. This is the main reason as to why capitalists want draconian acts like MESMA to stiffle working people. He called upon the organized sector employees to take a lead in developing an independent program of working class as opposed to the capitalist program of liberalization and privatization, since it is only such program can take India out of the present crisis.

Western Railway Motormen’s Association representative in his address thanked Lok Raj Sangathan for educating them about the new Act. He declared that just as all the policies of government are as per the instructions of rich minority of the country, so is this decision of MESMA will be for the benefit of the rich employers of our country. He then explained why on 20th July’12 the Western Railway motormen had to go on flash strike. He explained that their organization has been persuing their demands mainly of improving their working conditions with various officials of Indian railways but the administration is not paying any heed. Hence they were forced to go on flash strike.Then management immediately started discussions. This is how when working people are not left with any other alternative that they resort to strike actions, which is what MESMA seeks to prevent. He declared his organizations full support to the fight against MESMA.

Veteran Trade union leader of Hind Mazdoor Sabha ( HMS ) Comrade Shankar Salvi declared that his organization is actively opposing MESMA and has petitioned the governor that he should not sign on the bill. He clarified that the bill was tabled on the last but one day of the summer session of Vidhan sabha and hurriedly passed in the presence of only 15 legislators without proper debate. He also denounced various legislators who call themselves as labour leaders but did not oppose the passage of MESMA. We can only rely on our united efforts and strength he declared.

On behalf of Voltas Employees Union their representative declared full support to the agitation.

Mumbai Electric Employees representative explained how they were targeted by Government of Maharashtra at the behest of Reliance Energy Ltd. of Anil Ambani group and their committee members were sacked using MESMA 2005. They were demanding equal pay for equal work as per the Contract worker’s Act rule 25 and were demanding wages equal to the lowest level worker category of Reliance energy. When Reliance management refused to accede to this just demand they resorted to strike. Reliance immediately asked Government of Maharashtra to apply MESMA , and the government promptly complied and arrested 12 workers in 2007. Those workers have not been taken back till date. But they have resolutely continued their struggle and pledged to be part of this struggle against new avatar of MESMA.

Then the representatives of All India Railway Employees Confederation, AIUTUC ( Lenin Sarini), Airport employees Union, All India aircraft engineers association also expressed their full support to the movement against MESMA.

IFTU representative reminded everybody as to how inspite of earlier MESMA more than 1000 badali workers in various hospitals of Maharashtra fought and won permanent employee status even though government GR said that badali workers can not be made permanent. And similarly 1800 loaders of Air India & CPWD employees bravely fought and won inspite of ESMA. Workers of Maharashtra will definitely defeat this MESMA he declared.

Justice Suresh in his address denounced MESMA as a draconian attack on fundamental right of working people. If working people are demanding a life of dignity, if they are demanding human working conditions, if they are demanding a decent livelihood then how can anybody declare this as a crime and illegal he thundered! The proposed act talks about maintenance of essential services , but it does not have any proposals of “maintenance” of the services but only has draconian provisions to attack workers , clearly showing that government’s real intention is far from improving essential services. He declared that there are many provisions in the present Indian constitution which the proposed act violates like Article 19/1 A , Articles 1C , 23 & Article 21. Right to strike involves three rights he declared namely Freedom of association, freedom from forced labour & Freedom of expression and hence is very much a part of right to life and liberty. He declared that not only the workers but all the democratic minded people of our society must oppose this law tooth and nail. He also declared that not the courts and ruling class politicians but only fighting people can save our country from disaster. He pledged his unequivocal support to this fight against MESMA.

Kamgar Ekta Chalwal representative declared that need of the hour is to build the unity of all the working people irrespective of whether they are blue collared or white collared, permanent or contract workers, whether they are working in same sector or different sectors of economy, whether they believe in this ideology or that ideology. This unity needs to be built cutting across party lines he said. Only such unity can ensure defeat of capitalist program he declared.

At the end of the meeting 4 resolutions were passed unanimously in which representatives of other organizations present i.e. Purogami Mahila Sangathan, Hind Naujawan Ekta Sabha,Republican Panthers, CPI, CPI ( ML ),Mumbai Labour Union, Ladaku Garment Mazdoor Sangh also participated. First resolution denounced MESMA as an attack on fundamental right to strike and called upon all democratic minded people to demand immediate withdrawl of the Act. Second resolution called upon the government to provide all the necessary funds and ensure that all working in Essential services should be immediately made permanent and all of them be given decent working conditions so that they can provide best service to society. The third resolution called upon the government to institute necessary mechanism to ensure that the employees grievances are settled urgently so that they donot have to resort to strike actions. The last resolution expressed full support to heroic Maruti Suzuki workers and denounced the capitalist owners of Maruti Suzuki and Government of Harayana and Government of India.

The meeting ended with a declaration that various organizations will plan out various joint actions against MESMA.